What are you working on right now?

About to revisit Under a Blood red sky before copy editing. Then I have to move to the next thing - I have a choice of the book people actually want but I’m terrified is rubbish, and the one I love writing and don’t entirely care if people think is rubbish....

or more are they/are they not real fairies? That might be a terrible idea.
 
Ooh I'm in York @.matthew. ! Are you local? Assuming you mean York UK. I'm 14k into a secondary world fantasy that started as a romance-ish short story and is turning into a murder mystery. With dragons. YA, I think.
Unfortunately not, been there a few times and loved the feel of the place. So when I decided I needed a UK city I thought no way am I writing about Manchester :)
 
I'm always working on a few things at once. Currently I'm writing a science-fiction novel in a space opera universe, about a spaceship that will carry its passengers wherever in the Known Universe they want to go, discreetly and anonymously. The novel follows the set of passengers on one particular expedition, who all have their own private, secret reasons for needing to flee their own worlds. But those secrets must never be told to anyone, not even the other passengers. The only one who knows all the secrets is the Porter, who captains the ship, and he will die before he does so.

I'm also working on a short story, I'm thinking it will be the first of a few in a series, about girl who sails away from her oppressive island home and winds up with a crew of magical not-quite-human creatures that sail as pirates.

Both of these are in pretty early stages.
 
I can’t see a sequel to Waters - Amy’s story is told - but there is a new novel coming out with Inspired Quill in Nov which will, I think, appeal :)

It's probably a bad idea. I'm torn between there has to be more and knowing that would probably ruin the magic.

I am really excited about the new one. I'm using Waters in an essay this week about my context.
 
It's probably a bad idea. I'm torn between there has to be more and knowing that would probably ruin the magic.

I am really excited about the new one. I'm using Waters in an essay this week about my context.
Oh that’s mega cool! The only time I’ve been essayed before was to rip the sh*t out of me, so hopefully I survive better this time :D
 
Oh that’s mega cool! The only time I’ve been essayed before was to rip the sh*t out of me, so hopefully I survive better this time :D

Absolutely this is the coolest essay I have ever been asked to write. It's about how we arrived at where we are as writers.

I'm using Waters and probably Inish as examples of stories that are set in a regional setting and have inspired me to get brave about the place I live in and I'm passionate about. Unlike yourself I have a disconnect. My voice is very Northern English but I haven't lived there in thirty years, I don't know how to live in a city in 2020. I'm also placing Amy alongside Margery from my favourite book as why they're such great female characters.

I'm going to rip the sh*t out of a sit-com called Mountain Goats that helped me understand what cultural appropriation is really about ;) My views on that particular piece of cr*p are well deserved ;) and the producer got my views before it was broadcast.
 
I'm working on a sf novel following an alien girl and her family, as they rescue a mysterious human man from certain death. I'm about 12k words into the second draft, which has seen massive changes from the first draft.
 
Absolutely this is the coolest essay I have ever been asked to write. It's about how we arrived at where we are as writers.

I'm using Waters and probably Inish as examples of stories that are set in a regional setting and have inspired me to get brave about the place I live in and I'm passionate about. Unlike yourself I have a disconnect. My voice is very Northern English but I haven't lived there in thirty years, I don't know how to live in a city in 2020. I'm also placing Amy alongside Margery from my favourite book as why they're such great female characters.

I'm going to rip the sh*t out of a sit-com called Mountain Goats that helped me understand what cultural appropriation is really about ;) My views on that particular piece of cr*p are well deserved ;) and the producer got my views before it was broadcast.
That sounds amazing. I’d love to read it, if that was appropriate, when you’re done. I’m glad to hear you are feeling more confident about your voice and place :)
 
I like the sound of both of those.
 
I've set my editing of bk 1, and writing of bk 2 aside whilst I work on a 2-5k short story for an ultra short horror submission window that @TheDustyZebra kindly pointed me in the direction of.

The existing horror WIPS:

Bk 1 - A Sour Ground - was massively over word count and after an outstandingly helpful beta (showing exactly how many structural and logical problems there were) I'm toying with the idea of splitting each historical era into its own book, or at least removing one or two of the other periods and putting them in susbesquent books. I'd never planned on this being an actual series but:

Bk 2 - The Pegge and the Pendrel - will also be massively over word count due to over-ambitious amount of historical eras - so I reduced that to just two eras, 1860s and 2150s

I'm still ruminating on my short story for the horror sub but so far it is set in Christmas 1922, Lyme Regis, and is tentatively called The Bailiff's Cottage. It's similar in feel/style to my 300 worders The Rise of Woman, and Breaking the Seal in that I'm hoping for something Jamesian. First ideas became a bit too Lovecraftian so I ditched that...

pH
 
Just taken on a new editorial project. It's extra cool because it's a guy I've worked with before, repeat business, making me feel like I have "a reputation" and "a roster of clients" and stuff like that. And it's in the same genre as my own WIP, namely dystopian cyberpunk sci-fi. And he's paid in advance. Christmas is saved! :)
 
I'm still ruminating on my short story for the horror sub but so far it is set in Christmas 1922, Lyme Regis, and is tentatively called The Bailiff's Cottage. It's similar in feel/style to my 300 worders The Rise of Woman, and Breaking the Seal in that I'm hoping for something Jamesian. First ideas became a bit too Lovecraftian so I ditched that...

Ooh, Lyme, nice. If you need a beta for it, you know where I am.

I'm working on nothing. Honestly don't think I'll write anything ever again - not novel length, anyway. I will be working on something for the new Distaff antho when it's been ok'd but that's it.
 
It's similar in feel/style to my 300 worders The Rise of Woman, and Breaking the Seal in that I'm hoping for something Jamesian.

Just to say that I thought both of these were very good, and that they captured the feel of M.R. James but added interesting new aspects. Either would make a good full-length short story.
 

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